CONFESSING WITH YOUR MOUTH

Romans 9:10  “That if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved;

v10  “for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation.”

There are people, many of the Christians, who believe that by “Positive Confession” you can bring your thoughts and words to pass. 

On the negative side, these people believe a NEGATIVE confession can bring you harm.

These folks don’t necessarily confess what the Scriptures of the Bible say, if it even comes close to Bible words, they just say what either sounds good to them or what they want to obtain.

This is both a mistake and dangerous. 

Believing your confession will be manifest based solely on saying what you want, shows a misunderstanding of the Bible, at best, or sadly an ignorance of the Bible, or a deliberate manipulation of God’s Word, at worst.

 It is tantamount to witchcraft and occultism and is a mockery of Biblical teachings and mandates.

Now that is out of the way, let’s take a look at what it means to

CONFESS WITH YOUR MOUTH

SALVATION

Romans 10:9  

“that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved;”

CLEANSING FROM UNRIGHTEOUSNESS

1 John 1:9      

If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

HEALING

James 5:16     

Therefore, confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another so that you may be healed. The effective prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much.

GOD HEARS YOU, FORGIVES YOU, HEAL YOUR LAND

2 Chronicles 7:14      

and My people who are called by My name humble themselves and pray and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, will forgive their sin and will heal their land.

DEATH AND LIFE

Proverbs 18:21          

Death and life are in the power of the tongue, And those who love it will eat its fruit.

COMPASSION

Proverbs 28:13          

He who conceals his transgressions will not prosper, But he who confesses and forsakes them will find compassion.

RIGHTEOUSNESS AND SALVATION

Romans 10:10

for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation.

ANSWERED PRAYER

Mark 11:23

“Truly I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and cast into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says is going to happen, it will be granted him.”

ANSWERED PRAYER, BEARING FRUIT, DISCIPLESHIP

John 15:7,8

“If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.  “My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be My disciples.”

CLAIMING THE PROMISES OF GOD

Some people consider claiming the promises of God akin to a “Positive Confession” in that the act of saying “I receive” or “I claim” this promise of God, will somehow bring it to pass.

NEWSFLASH –

I am sorry to disillusion some, but, GOD’S PROMISES have already come to pass!  He has already graciously and generously given us more than we could even think or imagine to ask!  (Ephesians 3:20)

“For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.”  Ephesians 2:10

Claiming that you have the power to activate God’s Promises is an affront to His Authority, His Mercy, His Graciousness, His Gifts to us, His Love for us.

All we have to do is, (Matthew7:7)  “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. 

v8  “For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened.

v9  “Or what man is there among you who, when his son asks for a loaf, will give him a stone?

v10  “Or if he asks for a fish, he will not give him a snake, will he?

v11  “If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give what is good to those who ask Him!”

“Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us,  v21 to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen.” 

Ephesians 3:20

Your Brother and Friend,

Mike Young

RELATED ARTICLE:  THE SECRET OF MEDITATING ON AND MEMORIZING THE WORD OF GOD

PLEASE NOTE:  You do not have to be a Christian to face severe trials, tests and temptations.  Everyone will face them.  To successfully endure and overcome them , you MUST know these Truths.

 

Jesus has shown His disciples the way to resist the devil and to overcome times of testing and of temptations.  But, you must be His devoted follower.

“Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.

 And after He had fasted forty days and forty nights, He then became hungry.  And the tempter came”  Matthew 4:1-3

Our last study was from Matthew 26:41, “Keep watching and praying that you may not enter into temptation; the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.” (Matthew 26:41).

The word “Temptation” as used here describes a “trial,  a testing, a proving trial. 

• It is the trial of man’s fidelity, integrity, virtue, constancy;  the enticement to sin, arising from personal desires or from the outward circumstances;

• In this case it is the temptation by which the devil sought to divert Jesus the Messiah from his divine errand; 

• It also show the condition of a person, a mental state, by which we are enticed to sin, or to a lapse from the faith and holiness;

• It comes from adversity, affliction, trouble, sent by God and serving to test or prove one’s character, faith, holiness.

Jesus set the example and showed us why God sends trials and temptations our way.  He tested His own son to show us what to expect and how we are to react.  Notice:

1.  Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit – God initiates the trials.

2.  Into the wilderness – No food, no water, no resources, no earthly help for 40 days.

3.  To be tempted by the devil – In a weakened state, alone.

This part of the Judean desert or wilderness could be arid, fiercely hot and waterless.  There were predatory animals prowling and roving bands of thieves.  Imagine how the dangers of geography, climate and the barren landscape could affect and test your body, mind and spirit.

Then, “after He had fasted forty days and forty nights, He then became hungry. And the tempter came”  Matthew 4:1-3

This is the condition and these are the type of circumstances which will truly prove a disciple.  Jesus deliberately and willingly followed The Spirit into a hostile wasteland to be tested.

In a desperate physical condition, Jesus was tempted by Satan, first with His physical need of food.

Next, His soul was tempted with pride of life.

Finally, His Spirit was tempted with glory and honor.

Jesus was tried, tempted and tested and He overcame the temptations of the Body, the Soul and the Spirit.  He has shown us the way!

We would do well to study this and commit it to memory so in that time of temptation and testing you will also say,

1.  ‘I SHALL NOT LIVE ON BREAD ALONE, BUT ON EVERY WORD THAT PROCEEDS OUT OF THE MOUTH OF GOD.’”

2.  ‘I SHALL NOT PUT THE LORD MY GOD TO THE TEST.’”

3.  ‘I SHALL WORSHIP THE LORD MY GOD, AND SERVE HIM ONLY.’”

Then, and only then, the devil will leave you; and even the angels will come and minister to you.  (see Matthew 4:11)

Be encouraged by the words of the Apostle Peter when he said, “

1 Peter 1:6  “In this you greatly rejoice, even though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been distressed by various trials, 7 so that the proof of your faith, being more precious than gold which is perishable, even though tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ; 8 and though you have not seen Him, you love Him, and though you do not see Him now, but believe in Him, you greatly rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory, 9 obtaining as the outcome of your faith the salvation of your souls.

Dear friends, the let’s finish this race as to obtain the Prize!

Your Brother and Friend,

Mike Young

The Gospel is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes.  Romans 1:16.

(This teaching, applied, can change your life for the better.  Much better)

But what does it say? “The word is near you, in our mouth and in your heart”—that is, the word of faith which we are preaching, that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved;  for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation. Romans 10:8-10

Why is confessing or speaking what you are thinking required for salvation?  For that matter, why is saying aloud (confessing) what you are thinking necessary at all?

Notice how the Apostle Paul connects Words + Believing + Confessing

• “The Word in your mouth” with also being “in your heart”. 
• And again, he connects “confessing with your mouth” with “believing in your heart”
• And finally, again, connecting “with the heart a person believes” with “with the mouth he confesses”
• THE RESULT is SALVATION (soteria)

There is something powerful about saying aloud what is in your mind or heart – for good or for evil.

Read what Dr. Ronald Alexander, PhD psychotherapist says, “An affirmation can work because it has the ability to program your mind into believing the stated concept. This is because the mind doesn’t know the difference between what is real or fantasy.  There are both positive and negative types of affirmations.”

One of the key psychological theories behind positive affirmations is self-affirmation theory (Steele, 1988). So, yes, there are empirical studies based on the idea that we can maintain our sense of self-integrity by telling ourselves (or affirming) what we believe in positive ways.

Another related article by Catherine Moore, Psychologist, MBA, says

“The development of self-affirmation theory has led to neuro-scientific research aimed at investigating whether we can see any changes in the brain when we self-affirm in positive ways.

There is MRI evidence suggesting that certain neural pathways are increased when people practice self-affirmation tasks (Cascio et al., 2016). If you want to be super specific, the ventromedial prefrontal cortex—involved in positive valuation and self-related information processing—becomes more active when we consider our personal values (Falk et al., 2015; Cascio et al., 2016).

More importantly, and centuries ahead of Ronald Alexander, PhD psychotherapist, Catherine Moore, Psychologist, MBA, and all the others, is what The Bible has to say on meditating and speaking what you are thinking:

1.         THE POWER OF THOUGHTS 

Proverbs23:7  “For as a man thinks within himself, so he is.
            He says to you, “Eat and drink!”
            But his heart is not with you.

2.         THE POWER OF MEDITATION

Joshua 1:8  “This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it; for then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have success.

3.         THE POWER OF SPEECH

Matthew21:21  “And Jesus answered and said to them, “Truly I say to you, if you have faith and do not doubt, you will not only do what was done to the fig tree, but even if you say to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and cast into the sea,’ it will happen. 22“And all things you ask in prayer, believing, you will receive.”

John15:7  “If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.

Matthew 16:19  “I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; and whatever you bind on earth shall have been bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall have been loosed in heaven.”

Matthew18:19  “Again I say to you, that if two of you agree on earth about anything that they may ask, it shall be done for them by My Father who is in heaven.

 Philippians 4:8  “Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things. 9The things you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you.”

The Bible uses words like The Mind (set on), To Think, To Think on, Meditate, Dwell on, Speak, Say, in both the Greek (NT) and Hebrew (OT) languages to show us how we are made and how we are to manage what God has granted to us.

A FINAL NOTE and a caution:  The secular view by most psychologists and psychiatrists is anthropocentric (man-centered, woman-centered).

The Biblical view is Theocentric or God-centered.

So, while you practice these powerful Truths, it is vitally important to remember that Romans 8:5 teaches us the difference between man-centered (death) and God-centered (life) and the application of these truths”

Verse 5. “those who are according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who are according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit.

Verse 6.  “For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace,

Verse 7.  “because the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God; for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so, those who are in the flesh cannot please God.”   ROMANS 8: 5-8

Please remember that you are dealing with powerful forces here.  One leading to death and the Other leading to LIFE.  Use wisdom.  Use caution. Choose Life. 

Please do not dabble in occult-like practices.  This is not about you being a “better you” or “how to gain wealth” nor is it a “name-it-and-claim-it theology”. 

This is about SERVING GOD, BECOMING HIS DISCIPLE and BEING MADE INTO HIS IMAGE.  What you learn and apply here are His gifts and methods to serve Him better and to live this life abundantly by His Standards.

Your Brother and Friend,

Mike Young

“Father, I pray over this article and this message and that you will watch over those who read this, who diligently apply this, Your Word, to their lives, that You will cause it to bear much fruit that You will be glorified.”   Amen & Amen!

In a recent POST, “Open Your Eyes“ from my series “And You Shall Be My Disciples”, I note how the Apostle Paul prayed this for the Ephesian Christians: 

“I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you will know what is the hope of His calling…and what is the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe (Ephesians 1: 18-19).

Also, in 2 Kings 6:17  Elisha prayed and said, “O LORD, I pray, open his eyes that he may see.” And the LORD opened the servant’s eyes and he saw; and behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha.”

The problem is that we don’t always see things clearly.  It is like we are squinting in a fog, peering through a mist.  But we can have the weather clear and the sun shine bright!  We can see it all as clearly as God sees.  

(“For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face; now I know in part, but then I will know fully just as I also have been fully known.”  1 Corinthians 13:12)

We need our eyes opened so we may see what God would have us see.  So we can see our way.

The Good News is that God has made a way – even when there doesn’t seem to be a way. (1 Corinthians 10:13)

Coincidentally, I finished another post, “Bring in the Poor” Lesson #35, of my “And You Shall Be My Disciples” series, with these words:

“We are living in a time where the “State” has largely replaced God in our lives.  What the Church used to do (or does, in a very limited fashion) The “State” now does, but with serious consequences.

“The “State” provides food, clothing, housing, medical care, social welfare income, social security retirement income, disability income, mandated education, government funded abortions, job training, etc., regardless of your beliefs, lifestyle or habits, morals or ethics.

“WE, the CHURCH, are abdicating our role and responsibility.  We must care for and provide for our pastors. But, the average church spends 70% to 80%+ of its buildings, debt, income on salaries, retirement plans, healthcare plans, perks, etc., for pastors and staff.  Even the best missions programs top of their giving at an average of just 5%. Even once the mission money is delivered, it to goes largely to the same budgetary items. 

We go to our church buildings and worship in relative luxury while the world around us becomes more and more secular, more hostile to Christianity and lost to God.

“WE, THE CHURCH, THE SAINTS OF GOD, HIS CHILDREN, MUST RECLAIM THIS TERRITORY!

“I pray that God will forgive me – forgive us – and that we will submit ourselves, our luxuries, our wants to Him. That I – that we – have the will and the courage to repent and follow Him, fully devoted, fully surrendered, all in!”

It seems, if you are looking around, you cannot escape this message. 

For instance, today, I heard a message from Pastor Alistair Begg.  Here is an excerpt from his message.

https://www.truthforlife.org/resources/sermon/frangelism-1friends-relatives-assoc-/

“They (the disciples) were looking without seeing. Despite the fact that the disciples of Jesus lived closed to him, listened to him, were part of seeing his miraculous deeds, and were, if you like, as tuned in as any group might be, they were guilty of taking care of practical matters to the detriment of ultimate issues. Indeed, what Jesus says to them here is that they’re living with their eyes closed.

“Now, that would be one thing if it were merely an historical description and we could look back on it and say, “Boy, those guys really made a mess of it. I’m glad we’re not like that at all”—until we read the verses, and it begins to scratcth where we itch, begins to cut into our lives.

“And we realize that this is a telling picture not simply of the disciples on that day, but it is to some degree a picture of many local churches—and actually, to a certain measure, a description of the church as a whole: taking care of what it believes to be priorities, while all the time failing to see that the issues, as good and as important as they may be, are subservient to the timeless and pressing issue of the souls of men and women. Indeed, if you like, living in the midst of time without acknowledging that eternity casts its shadow across it all.

“So Jesus, exhorts his disciples , “I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest.” The disciples obviously were not noticing this; they hadn’t grasped it, nor had they been grasped by it.

And again, it is vitally relevant, because I find myself like them, inclined to be preoccupied with the immediate and the material needs, and that I constantly need to be refocused to the spiritual and to the eternal.

Why is it that I can be so consumed with the assumption that because my neighbors and my friends are relatively okay, they are materially satisfied, they are intellectually stable, they are emotionally not total basket cases, is that really the case?

“And, we look at indigent people, in a crime-laden society, the criminal elements, the poor people, and such, and we’re often lulled in to thinking “if we would only  increase the social benefits towards these folks, all would be well for them—failing to recognize that no matter what we do in that regard, still will not address the ultimate issues of these people’s lives.

“And in that, the harvest is obscured. 

“The picture which Jesus employs is to, “open your eyes and look at the fields!” Now, what does Jesus mean? I mean, they obviously weren’t standing around with their eyes actually closed.  But, they certainly had their ears closed, and metaphorically, so were their eyes.”  Alistair Begg.

ONE WAY

There is only ONE WAY to fix the mess we are in and that our world is in.

1.  If you have not already, then, turn to God now, through faith in Jesus

2.  Put your desires and passions for luxuries of this world aside (no matter what the size, cost or context of luxury is to you)

3.  Immediately, come to the Harvest.  God is calling and I am inviting you.

4.  OPEN YOUR EYES.  Be aware that if you continue to seek your own achievements, your own status and goals, pleasures, relaxation and comfort, NO MATTER HOW NOBLE THEY MAY BE, you may be putting yourself in jeopardy as that Day of the Lord draws near.  You and I must fix this.

5.  If you and I continue CHURCH AS USUAL, then what are you really doing?

As the Church goes, so goes America, so goes the world

Your Brother and Friend,

Mike Young